I thought it was about time to come out of xanga hybernation and give some updates. Things are going well in the Kim household. At the end of October, Capt. Kim ended his four year USAF career and is now a veteran.

So I threw him a suprise "Congratulations on finishing the AF!" party for him.

His next job won't start until later this month, so Ray's been busy serving me around the house. It's been great! Here he is with one of the meals he made - corned beef and cabbage.

Ray took this pic to show how much I've been contributing while he works really hard

In early November, we went to visit Andy in AZ.

Here's what me and Debbie did the whole time.

Andy took us to an authentic Chicago-style hot dog place.

We watched Audrey one day. She was so excited her hair stood up!

Here's precious Marcus on  Thanksgiving. Isn't this the best picture?

Most recently, Ray's parents came to visit us from Chicago and so we spent some quality time with them in San Diego. With Andy also coming in from Arizona, we were all together as a family. I ended up getting the stomach flu, but praise God that I felt better by the time we left for SD.

We went for a hike at Torrey Pines State Park. It's SO beautiful there! Ray was just happy to be out of the house since he spent so much time taking care of me indoors.

On Saturday we went to the Zoo. One of my favorite parts was seeing how animals sleep.

The elephants were awesome! Too bad I got some allergic reaction from the animals and got a weird rash.

Family picture

Our last morning there we went to the La Jolla Coves. I think my in-laws had a great time getting away from snowy Chicago.

Wow, that was a lot. Thanks for reading!

So, Ray's brother Andy drove all the way from Chicago last week and stayed with us for a few days before his next assignment in Arizona. He pulled a large box out of the car and nope, wasn't his stuff....but it was filled with EIGHT doggy pillows made by Ray's halmunee (grandma) for all of us and our cousins! She has made these doggy pillows for Ray and his siblings ever since they were little, and I finally got my own - I feel like this was the last step in truly becoming part of their family. So, we each got our assigned dogs. Here's mine:

Here's Ray's. Notice the camouflage. Halmunee said his is the longest because it is supposed to fit two heads - haha!

But wait, let's take a closer look:

The whole body of the pillow is made with Houston Rockets NBA fabric!! I couldn't stop cracking up when I saw this. We were all confused, but given the fact that halmunee once gave Ray a birthday card written in Spanish, and a blanket with the word "NICOLE" in large letters on the front, this was no surprise. Our guess is that she was thinking this was Chicago Bulls fabric.

The pillows are now a regular part of our decor.  

Here we all with our doggy pillows. My mother in law said halmunee made these pillows so that we can remember her. She's so cute!! Thank you halmunee!